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Georgia reports three NCAA violations involving football program

Georgia reported three NCAA violations involving the football program during last season, according to a summary of them obtained Friday in an open records request.

All appear to be minor violations, but Georgia did not list what level of violations they were classified.

One involved two different assistant football coaches making phone calls to a recruit.

A call was made on Sept. 8 to the recruit himself and the other to the recruit’s father on Sept. 9 that lasted one minute. Then defensive line coach Tracy Rocker was not scheduled to call the recruit that week and received a letter of admonishment. The coaching staff was restricted for calling the recruit between Nov. 13-26 and provided rules education.

Another violation occurred when a football non-coaching staff member returned a call to a high school coach to talk about a recruit’s initial eligibility. The head coach or assistant coaches are only permitted to make such a call.

An assistant football coach informed the non-coaching staff member that he had talked to a high school coach about the recruit’s academic standing and the coach would be calling the non-coaching staff member for more details. The non-coaching staff member returned the high school coach’s call after missing several calls. “Involved staff member is prohibited from receiving calls from the (recruit) or anyone affiliated with the (recruit) for 30 days,” the summary said. “The coaching staff was barred from any contact with the recruit for seven days.”

The third violation involved a rule that doesn’t permit a media entity to be present during a recruiting contact made by a coaching staff member. A guest of a recruit took photos of the football team during an unofficial visit and posted them onto a media entity’s website where freelance photographers can post pictures of community events.

The photographer was prohibited from further complimentary tickets as a guest of recruits and Georgia will no longer issue media credentials to her.